A MAN WHO FIRED HIMSELF

February 07, 2014
Elijah Ogidi-Olu
0 Comments

Now, here’s a very awkward story I’m about to share with you and if
for one reason or the other you don’t read towards the end, well, I can’t say what
exactly you’ll be thinking. But if you manage to read it up, it probably might
change your life or if that’s too general, at least the way you view some things
in life. You know that old saying “money cannot buy you happiness” right?...
Now read how far this guy here went to prove it true.

Joshua Fields Millburn, who at age 27 became the youngest director
of operations at a large telecom company in the Midwest, had been asked to
craft a plan to close eight retail stores and terminate 41 workers by his boss.
But when he handed the report to his boss in early 2011, it included 42 names.
At the top of the list he’d written his own. Craziness?! Supidity?! Give it any
name but you might be wiping your mouth clean later on. Ok, read on!

Two years before, Millburn had watched his mother die and his
marriage dissolve in the span of a month. When he looked around at the life
he’d built for himself — a six-figure salary, impressive title, and big house
full of stuffed closets — he didn’t feel fulfilled. Instead, he felt weighed
down by the things he’d accumulated. Working 80 hours a week trapped in a cycle
of consumerism had ultimately ruined his relationship and left him with
$100,000 of debt because of his inability to balance all spheres of his life,
no matter how hard he tried, his career just kept outweighing and outbalancing
other areas of Josh’s life. One of the many attributes challenges of the
corporate world.

Then he came across the idea of ‘minimalism’, a lifestyle dedicated
to clearing the clutter in your life and making room for the things that are
truly important to you. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “Less Is More” you
might have brushed by a minimalist. Over a period of eight months, Millburn
stopped buying things he didn’t need, gave away most of the stuff he had, and
downsized to a one-bedroom apartment in Dayton, Ohio. After doing this, his
life changed and a long lost happiness returned to him.

When his longtime friend and coworker Ryan Nicodemus finally asked,
“Why the hell are you so happy lately?” he realized he was onto something.
Millburn explained his new lifestyle, and Nicodemus was instantly hooked.
Together they launched a website about their journey, TheMinimalists.com,
and recently published a book, “Everything That Remains.”

“Once I shed the superfluous things I owned, it led to other parts
of my life: my health, relationships, work,” Millburn tells Business Insider.
“I had wrapped up my identity in my career and status, but started to realize
that it wasn’t in line with my beliefs.”

Since walking away from the corporate world and dedicating himself
to his writing, Millburn, now age 32, says he’s paid off all his debt, lost 80
pounds, and moved to a small town in Montana, where he surrounds himself only
with things that are functional and brings him joy.

On his website and in talks, Millburn shares his strategies for
paring down, and he insists that embracing minimalism doesn’t have to be as
dramatic or life altering as his experience. For some, it may be as simple as
thinking more carefully about what you buy or how you spend your time. He
suggests these three steps for getting started today:

1. Ask yourself how your life might be better if you owned fewer
material possessions. "A lot of people might want to declutter
their closets," says Millburn. "But without understanding the purpose
behind it, they will just get cluttered again."2. Get rid of one thing each day for a month."This
will help you build momentum," he says. At the end of the 30 days, you'll
likely end up tossing a lot more than 30 items, since you've devoted that time
to really looking.3. Recruit a friend to help. "The act of decluttering
is fairly boring," Millburn says. "If you can have an accountability
buddy that’s helping you, it can make it fun." Plus, if you motivate each
other, ultimately you both win.

You can visit the minimalist website
following the link above.

Some people feel blessed with less and some
will never stop till they have it all and that’s why the world is a world of variety.
Remember to drop your comments.

Hello. I'm Ogidi-Olu Elijah. A Creative Content Developer, Freelance writer and Blogger. I also help people manage their blogs via content management. Thanks for checking me out on MMT. Where, we talk with no holds barred. Got something for me? Kindly send me a mail. It's good to have you here. Let's have some fun!

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